HOUSE Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City urged his fellow lawmakers on Thursday to restore the original budget slashed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) from the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB).
“The OMB is tasked to ensure that public servants, from the highest official of the land to the lowly clerk, observe the highest standards of responsibility, honesty, integrity, and loyalty. We should give them the funds to carry out that mandate,” he added.
Citing DBM-crafted 2022 national budget, he said the funding for next year would be P3,967,258,000, which is P654.3 million lower than this year’s P4,621,564,000.
According to Rodriguez, the Constitution and the Ombudsman Act (RA 6770) mandate that the OMB budget for a given year should not be lower than the previous year’s level.
He said the Charter and the law also provide that the OMB “enjoys fiscal autonomy and that its budget should be released regularly.”
“In compliance with the Constitution and the Ombudsman Act, I appeal that we restore the amount of funds taken away by the DBM from our corruption watchdog to make it combat ready,” he said.
Rodriguez added the OMB does not even have a capital outlay appropriation and more than P800 million cut funds for salaries.
“I can understand if we reduce capital outlay funds. But why are we reducing compensation appropriations? The Ombudsman should be able to hire additional lawyer-investigators and financial analysts to speed up the investigation and resolution of graft and corruption cases,” he said.
He added Congress should not allow the reduction of funds for salaries for any state agency amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In the face of widespread suffering, joblessness and lack of income caused by the pandemic, we have to keep people in their jobs. In fact, the government, which is the country’s biggest employer, needs to hire more people,” he said.
Rodriguez also proposed that the OMB be allowed to use its savings and income.
For his part, Ombudsman Samuel Martires said his office could operate on the level of funds allocated to it by the DBM and the President.
“We are willing to sacrifice and accept the budget recommended by the executive branch if there is a need to augment the budget of other agencies that are fighting this pandemic,” he said.
“I think it would take us a lifetime to fight corruption unless and until we change our values, unless we disregard the sources of corruption the seven [deadly] sins. Unless we change our values we cannot fight, prevent graft and corruption because everyone want to become rich,” he added.